The Many Masks of Zoro – Counter Energy Zoroark and Buzzwole Zoroark in Standard

Hello once again Some1sPC readers! I've finally recovered from a long and grueling month of Pokémon tournaments from Vancouver to London to San Jose. I didn't perform as well as I had hoped for, but I enjoyed and made the most of traveling all over the world. It's hard to remain consistent at this game at high-level events and each failure is a lesson to improve in the future. In Vancouver, I made the mistake of playing what I assumed was a bit off the radar with Drampa Garbodor and avoided my comfort pick in Gardevoir. Our very own Mark Garcia was able to pilot Gardevoir to a Top 4 finish and I had the same 60 cards in my back pocket, but couldn't pull the trigger. In London, I tested an absurd amount but was overwhelmed with the options to play for the event. Nothing stood out to me as the play and I wanted to play multiple decks. The Standard format is really interesting at the moment as there are a lot of decks that seem viable enough to take down the event. In the end, I fell back to a comfort pick in Golisopod Garbodor and struggled with the natural inconsistencies of the pairing. In San Jose, I had my best result of the month finishing 34th place. I played the Zoroark deck that Kian Amini and friends had been playtesting for at least a month. The deck was consistent and took advantage of the tools in Expanded. I had a lot of fun and fell short due to great games against solid opponents. A costly tie forced me to inevitably bubble by 1% resistance. In this article, I'm going to go over two decks I had dedicated quite a few hours of testing for London. I enjoyed playing these decks and had some fairly high win rates with them, but they fell short of being my deck choice for the event.

Seismitoad/Zoroark Expanded

Pokémon (20)

4 Zorua DEX

3 Zoroark GX

1 Zoroark BKT

1 Zoroark BW

3 Tapu Lele GX

2 Shaymin EX

2 Exeggcute PLF

1 Sudowoodo

1 Alolan Grimer

1 Alolan Muk

1 Seismitoad EX

Trainers (36)

2 Brigette

2 Colress

1 Ghetsis

1 Hex Maniac

1 Karen

1 Guzma

1 Acerola

1 N

4 Ultra Ball

4 Puzzle of Time

4 VS Seeker

2 Choice Band

2 Battle Compressor

2 Float Stone

2 Field Blower

1 Rescue Stretcher

1 Special Charge

1 Computer Search

3 Skyfield

Energy (4)

4 Double Colorless Energy

Counter Zoroark

The first deck I want to talk about is where I started with Zoroark. As I mentioned in my previous article, I love Counter Energy and saw great potential with the card. Finding effective partners for Counter Energy was quite difficult, but I came to the conclusion that Cobalion, Sudowoodo, and Mimikyu were the best. You can also use Counter Energy on cards like Zoroark BKT, Tapu Koko Promo, and Latios, which gives you hypothetically eight Double Colorless Energy. The deck was quite successful in testing and it has the advantage against players who haven't learned how to play around Counter Energy. Falling behind because you're spreading damage with either Latios and Tapu Koko, can set up your Counter Energy play to one of the key attackers for the specific matchup. I loved the synergy of the deck, as spreading with Buzzwole GX, Tapu Koko and Latios will set up your knockouts with either a Counter Energy or Zoroark BKT play.

Thanks for reading the free portion of this article! The rest of the article can be viewed by Elite PC members only. Click on the Ultra Ball below to catch this article and become an Elite PC Member today!

SOME1SPC was created by Christopher Taporco, Dylan Bryan, Marc Albright, and Russell LaParre with the intention to provide quality competitive content for the Pokemon Trading Card Game. We're a group of friends looking to better ourselves and the community by leveling up our deckbuilding, gameplay, and knowledge.